Johor Photos Promoted For Funding?

According to a new article in the Malaysian newspaper, The New Straits Times, the ultimate motive of all of the recent news about the launch of the Johor Hominid website may have been revealed: a call for funding.

R. Sittamparam, writing in an article on July 15th, notes that Vincent Chow’s and Sean Ang’s website is petitioning UNESCO for “world heritage status.”

…started a signature campaign among Malaysians and the international community to support the petition, which will also be sent to the Government. The petition states that the discovery of close-up photographs of the hominids in Johor were grounds for the existence of a new species.

“However, time is running out. The lack of sufficient funding for research and continued deforestation of Johor’s jungles and Bigfoot hunting may put the hominids under threat,” the petition says.

The website states that with the confirmation of the Johor Hominid’s existence by international experts, Unesco should declare the creature as part of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Cryptomundo commentary: Unfortunately, the article and the website give forth with no new evidence, no publication of the alleged photographs, and no concrete justification for UNESCO to give protection to any new hominid species. This appears to be another publicity release that has overemphasized the existance of photographs that have only been discussed, sketched, and traced. To promote a petition at this point appears premature and ill-advised. The motives for Vincent Chow’s actions of late are hard to understand, unless he is the receipt of less than thoughtful advice from his new partner.

Is this a way to convince people to be patient? Is working on the future scientific publication of the photographs a goal of Chow’s efforts? What is to be gained regarding these objectives from a petition drive now, other than to drive people to a website and get publicity for a hoped-for look at alleged photographs that are being withheld?

How can Chow and Ang be seriously stating that “the discovery of close-up photographs of the hominids in Johor [are] grounds for the existence of a new species,” if only a few have seen these photos? Does not such a position speak more to blind faith versus this being part of the scientific process?

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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